


The little lion and the widow trout

by hereticjellyzzzz



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Arranged Marriage, Canon Divergence - Greyjoy Rebellion, Catelyn Tully Stark Bashing, Catelyn being an evil step-mother to jon snow, Catelyn has lysa's luck on pregnancies, Child Neglect, Companionship, Creepy Petyr Baelish, Fosterage, Hypocrisy, Jon Snow is the child Lord of Winterfell, Lysa is not as crazy, Marriage of Convenience, Mildly Dubious Consent, Miscarriage, Multi, Ned Stark and Catelyn Tully do not have children together, Ned Stark dies at the greyjoy rebellion, Not Catelyn Friendly, POV Catelyn Tully Stark, POV Cersei Lannister, POV Jon Snow, POV Petyr Baelish, POV Selwyn Tarth, POV Tyrion Lannister, POV Tywin Lannister, Past Child Abuse, Poisoning, Political Alliances, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Scares, Rare Pairings, Scheming, The stark brood are lysa's children so they are arryn, Tywin Lannister's A+ Parenting, Unrequited Love, Wedding Night, Widowed, betrothal, creepy Lysa Tully Arryn, fine a little catelyn friendly, mentions of Hoster Tully's A+ Parenting, mentions of lysa date raping petyr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:06:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 21,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27419992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hereticjellyzzzz/pseuds/hereticjellyzzzz
Summary: Catelyn's fertility was well known in westeros, as much as lysa's miscarriages and stillbirths. In this fic their lucks are reversed and like canon! lysa, catelyn is still childless when balon greyjoy rebells against robert baratheon. In the final siege of pyke a lucky blow to the head from a greyjoy men at arms kills eddard stark and so without any trueborn relative, jon snow is made lord of winterfell by the king and his father's widow returns to riverrun.  Hoster tully is utterly dissapointed of his former beloved child and to wash the shame that her former bastard step-son has raised so high in life he accepts tywin lannister's proposal for his youngest  son to marry his widowed daughter and so  the demon monkey of the rock marries the barren trout and nothing is the same.--> if you like the fic leave a comment, if you do not like the fic leave a comment, if you think something is weird or have any ideas, leave a comment.
Relationships: Joanna Lannister/Aerys II Targaryen(one sided?), Lysa Tully Arryn/Petyr Baelish(one sided), Ned Stark/Catelyn Tully Stark (past), Petyr Baelish & Catelyn Tully Stark(one sided), Tyrion Lannister/Catelyn Tully Stark, Tyrion Lannister/Tysha (past)
Comments: 45
Kudos: 108





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to correct any gramatical error i find as soon as possible but it would take time.

It was a match arranged by his father and so tyrion did not complain , openly at least, until they day she arrives at casterly rock.  
  


She is the childless widow of winterfell. The lady stands in the courtyard with her back straight; clad in a gown of blue velvet with moonstones and sapphires at her throat she cuts an impressive sight, not only because the richness which she is dressed but also because of her girth.   
  
Catelyn stark nee Tully and future lady Lannister is nine years his older and she is fat, with a face so stern it could curdle milk.

  
She glares and sneers at the servants that dare to go near her and then she changes to frosty politeness with his father and uncle and aunt. Her speech has the riverlander swing with some slight northern drawl and though her courtesies are impeccable, the lady does not impress neither of them.

Her manners make painfully obvious she is not happy to be here and much less to be married to the demon monkey of the rock. And some twisted part of him relishes on the widening of her eyes and her open mouthed horror at seeing him in the flesh after he steps up from aunt genna’s large shadow. She schools her features swiftly but not swift enough for his father to not notice and frown and she falls deep into her courtesies, parroting them while looking at the wall in front of her , the crow’s feet on her eyes turning deeper and her small petulant mouth pursing fiercely when he greets her and kisses her hand.  
  
He lets his auncle and aunt lead the conversation while he hangs on the back , mute, and observes her carefully. If he looks at her long enough and if he is charitable, and most days he is not, he supposes he could say she was beautiful once with those cheekbones and beautiful eyes and hair, but years from a loveless and childless marriage has left her a shadow of her former self, with a puffy white-bone face and a thick belly that no fine gown or glowing auburn tresses could ever hope to hide and so her character and pride does not do her any favors.

And she is proud, he can see that in less than a minute of her arrival.

  
He refrains the urge to sigh and stands there silent, until his father tires of the formal greetings and directs her to the steward, the lady absconds to her new chambers in a swirl of skirts and the four of them are alone.  
  
He looks up to his older relatives and sees both aunt genna’s face and uncle kevan’s with a bored expression, they do not seem disappointed or surprised and Tyrion frowns, realizing that they all knew how his intended wife was supposed to be.

He decides to follow his father and uncle back to the study while aunt genna goes to the nursery to care for her youngest frey son, he closes the door behind uncle kevan and walks until he is front of tywin’s solid oak desk.

Tywin Lannister is already in deep concentration, writing over some parchment with brisk movements and making him wait as always. He swallows down and starts speaking.

  
-"My lord father, i know that after … _-don’t think of that, do not think of that , she was a whore, only a whore_ \- that you are eager for me to marry but , surely...- he clears his troth- surely there were other, _better options_?. Jaime is on the kingsguard and I am your heir ‘’- as soon as he says it he knows he made a mistake. Tywin’s usual stony expression morphs in one of rage , his face goes red for a second before he manages to restrain himself and his jaw is tense with the effort to not shout, his green eyes glare at him until he can not bear his gaze and he ducks his head in shame.  
  
-"Tyrion ... I don’t think"- uncle kevan's kind voice is interrupted by his father.  
  
-" _Better options_ , you say?. More than ten lords and landed knights have refused your hand for their daughters, sisters, cousins and nieces and you think you deserve more?.’’- his voice is raising with each word and his eyes are wild with rage. 

-‘’Death is the only thing you deserved after you killed your mother. You are an ill made spiteful little creature full of envy, lust and low cunning… but i let you live because you were a Lannister and my blood. And you think to call yourself my heir?. I will let myself be consume by maggots before mocking the family name and making heir of casterly rock’’ - his voice is deep and full of disbelieve and scorn.  
  
-" Once hoster tully rejected your suit for his youngest daughter because he wanted a _whole man_ for her, he would not have heard of this new proposal if this girl had not managed to lose her husband before she birthed an heir. She is your last option and she is far more than you deserve. I don’t care if she is fat and older, you will do your duty and get her with child ‘’-,

  
Even when the cruelty of lord tywin's words are no more than his usual wont they still sting and his eyes start to water. He remembers his first wife the last time he saw her, her linen dress in tatters and her tights bloody, her pale face and her lost eyes and her hands full of coins, his father's voice saying that a Lannister is worth more... He wants to bolt away from his father's study but no one leaves before he is dismissed and his eyes burn even more at the knowledge that both _him_ and uncle kevan will see him cry.  
  
-"Get out of my sight"- his father commands with a voice full of disgust   
  
Tyrion does not need to be told twice. He flees.


	2. Chapter 2

Catelyn stands in her new chambers alone. It has passed exactly a year since jorah mormont's letter arrived at winterfell and she still mourns her husband.  
  
Her sweet, sweet, ned that cared for her even when she gave him only miscarriages and stillbirths. She looks down to her belly and curses her empty womb.  
  
All had started so well, her husband was young and though not as handsome or gregarious as brandon had been ,he was kind and strong and polite. She remembers pitying lysa so much when she married old jon arryn and now time had proven she was a fool.  
  
Her little sister had managed to snare her old husband so much that it was said jon arryn ruled the kingdom and was ruled in turn by his lady wife. They had four children now, the first one was little robb, the only one she met and was able hold in riverrun before erupting in tears and giving him back to the wetnurse. Then lysa had two girls and a boy again, saving the arryn line from the threat of extinction.

And what does she had?.

In more than eight years of marriage she had lost eight pregnancies, the last one was barely a month before eddard had gone to the iron islands and far too soon to try again before his journey.  
  
How she had begged him to bed her again. She had been so scared that he would not come back, that without trueborn heirs and no other family able to inherit his seat the _bastard_ would end as lord of winterfell … but dear kind ned had refused of course, he had said she needed time to heal, to mourn their little child and grow stronger. He had promised to come back to her and he had kissed her forehead as he talked and she had wept in his arms like a child, swayed by his non- condemning words; she had not insisted, and her worst nightmare had come true.

And now the _bastard_ was now living in her husband’s home, sleeping on ned’s bed and being coddled by the servants and ned’s bannermen, who all called him the little lord of winterfell.

Her stomach churns in anger.

She remembers too well when the northern contingent arrived with ned’s bones at winterfell. From umbert, to Bolton, to manderly, to locke they had all seen her wept and tear at her hair in anguish, to beat her husband’s casket with her fists before being contained by some servants and the maester pushing a vial of milk of the poppy on her throat.

She exhales.

It had been disgraceful of her, no matter how profound her grief was but she had put herself together before the next night and directed the workers so ned could be buried with his father, sister and brother. She had been utterly engrossed in her efforts and decidedly ignored the council the northern lords were holding in ned’s solar. She had bitten down her anger at their presumption of not even consulting her before she remembered she was no longer the lady of winterfell. Catelyn had known that they were discussing what to do, since there were no live starks around except benjen but as he was a man of the night’s watch he did not count.

She had thought long and hard while she refused to see anyone in her chambers waiting until ned’s statue would be finished. She remembered that rickard stark had been an only child and though he had four children none of them had left any issue- _trueborn issue_ \- ,and his next kin had been lyarra stark, who had been his wife and cousin, and branda stark, his wife’s sister, who had married and knight from house rogers, from the stormlands. She imagined that whatever heir from branda that still survived would arrive with haste, to claim the much more prestigious lordship of winterfell.

She tried to imagine the southron knight. Maybe he would look like ned?.

It would surely help him if he had the stark look, she thought while looking to her copper locks. Ned had always loved her hair, even if it had grown brittle and not nearly as shining as it was with all her failed pregnancies, but others had not appreciated it as much as he had.

When she arrived from riverrun, with only a stillbirth behind her, she had been still beautiful. Many lords and ladies had complimented her looks.. though ever remarking her _southron_ appearance and their hope that whatever child she birthed would look like a proper stark, like a proper northmen.

And the comments had grown even more when ned decided to build a sept for her, so she could pray for the souls of their lost babes. She knew they were all dissatisfied that their lord had married a woman from another realm and a follower of the seven to top that. And her sept built in winterfell, the heart of the north , had made her even more unpleasant in their eyes, miscarriages and stillbirths aside.

She did not doubt that they would fume in anger when the man arrived. After all there had never been a lord stark who was a follower of the seven, like all stormlanders were.

She had sighed, forgetting all thoughts about ser Rodgers.

Catelyn knew she had no friends or conections aside her husband and with ned dead, she was alone.

She had been only mildly surprised that as a _courtesy to her_ , the lords had said, in respect for the love that their dead lord had for her , she was summoned to the council, to explain her in person what would happen before she had packed her things to return to her father’s home.

Lord umbert and lord Flint were at the centre of the table, while most lords were standing up, and they had asked her to sit.

Lord flint had given her his condolences before the greatjon had asked her if there hope that she was pregnant and catelyn had frowned behind her widow’s weeds- _another sothron costume_ \- , because it was apparent common knowledge that she was not. The lord had caught her expression and apologized saying it was per the kings’s order that he asked.

He stood then to his full height and informed them all with a booming voice that King Robert Baratheon had commanded that if his dear friend’s wife was not expecting an heir then the natural son of Eddard Stark, formerly known as jon snow, was legitimized as Jon Stark and was to be declared lord of winterfell and warden of the north and to be guided by a council of regents until he reached the age of majority.

She had been frozen there to her chair. Her mouth open and her fingers digging into her skirts as she had been at meeting the imp. Though her rage at having to curstey at the bastard before departing to the riverlands had been like the sun compared to the candle she felt at seeing her new betrothed’s deformity.

_But it’s still my duty to be his wife and bear his children… and can not disappoint father even more._


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for your comments, it means a lot.

They marry after two weeks of her arrival on the private sept of the rock instead f the golden sept of lannisport.

Tyrion knows it is a sting, a jab to both of them. He is the heir, even if his father refuses to acknowledge it because he is a dwarf and the bride, though the eldest daughter of a lord paramount, she is a widow, a childless widow at that.

There are only a few bannermen present and that just because coincidence. The younger brother of the Clegane knight who swore himself to tywin a few years ago would not miss a chance to drink and eat and the brother of his aunt dorna swift, who had been visiting his twin nephews. Also there are present both lord and lady westerling, they sit on the back of the hall.

He knows not what they are doing here but he assumes is because they need another extension for the loan they took though tha does not explain why the lady spicer looks at catelyn with such anger.

-‘’My lords, my ladies we are here.......''-

He turns his attention to the matter in hand after his new bride bumps his arm.

The septon drones about vows and promises and such other nonsense while he listens with a blank, bored face. He gazes his new wife at his side. She is looking at the floor with her hands laced together and appears to be deep in prayer. Annoyance builds in him and he refrains the urge to scoff.

He had a wife before, one he truly loved, even if she was a whore and if not for his father he still would have been living with her in that little cottage, utterly poor and happy.

_And I would have chosen my commoner wife over this proud lady every day of the year._

Tyrion idly wonders why her father arranged this match. She surely must have fallen out favor for the proud hoster tully to betroth his precious daughter to the imp of casterly rock. He has never known the man in person but he knows his actions during the rebellion and he wonders about what kind of man would marry his sixteen year old daughter to man older than himself. He is deep in thought so he misses the septon’s words.

-‘’Would you say the words?’’- the old man repeats after clearing his throat.

He shakes himself and darts a quick look at the front dais where tywin Lannister looks back with anger in his green eyes. He looks up to his bride, who is still looking at the floor and her pink lips are gone in hard line.

He sighs and the lady gives her an annoyed look before she speaks first.

-‘’With this kiss I pledge my love and take you for my lord and husband ‘’- her voice is clear and she does not look at him.

-‘’With this kiss I pledge my love and take you for my lady and wife ‘’ he repeats without enthusiasm.

He had not thought on bringing a ladder, trying to avoid this wedding and any thought of it as much as possible and only now Tyrion realizes his mistake when silence stretches and nothing happens, whispers arouse and from the corner of his eye he can see tywin giving them both a furious look.

He looks around helpless until the lady catelyn kneels to his side. He sends her a grateful look before quickly kissing her on the cheek. The sept erupts in cheers and the septon continues.

-‘’Let it be know that Tyrion of House Lannister and Catelyn of House Tully are one flesh, one heart and one soul. Cursed be the one who tries to tear them asunder’’-

The guests quickly approach them to congratulate them , from several cousins and other family relations the same well wishes are repeated but the only ones sincere are the ones from his uncle and aunt. Tywin Lannister just stares at them, his judging gaze ready to pick fault with anything, his eyes never leaving them.

The lady also seems to notice his father’s gaze and remains silent to his side, her smile is frozen in her pale face as they sit at the head table. Of the seven courses of food served he touches none, in contrast the lady catelyn seems to eat out of anxiety, her eyes always focused on the other tables.

They do not speak and the time he accidentally touches her arm so he could reach his cup she flinches and his stomach turns uncomfortably. He does not want a repeat of the last time he approached a woman to bed her.

It pass barely more than an hour before lord tywin himself stands and orders for the bedding to begin. His female cousins move towards him with apathy before aunt genna shoves them aside and herds him to his bedchamber.

She quickly picks his bad mood and makes jokes that usually cheer him up but now fall on empty ears, after a while she sighs and tells her to his duty and be kind to his wife. He is left on his own with all his clothes still on himself and he goes direct to the place where he hid the good liquor, afraid that his father would confiscated it.

He quickly gulps down a glass and sits on the settee waiting for the male guest to bring his wife. The alcohol burns throat but he keeps chugging glass after glass until the lady arrives.

She is only clad in her shift and her hair is unbound, her big breasts threating to spill out and her face flushed in anger. She closes the door on somebody’s nose and the men holler and laugh while screaming suggestions at both of them.

She looks down upon him and she frowns.

He is drunk, he couldn’t be anything else when his head is swaying so much but he smiles at her and her scowl deepens.

He lifts a hand and points to the bed and she strides off and lies over the sheets, her gaze directed at the ceiling and her legs spread wide. He finishes his drink and tries to stand, the floor rapidly moving on his feet and he almost falls before he catches the arm of the closest chair. He waddles to the bed and barely manages to climb on it, while landing hard in the matress.

He looks at her again, her fierce scowl and large belly and her pale, milky skin.

_I don’t want you_.

But he , even drunk as he is, would not defy tywin Lannister. Not when the last time he did it did ended so badly. And there is no point besides. The lady is a widow and at least she would know what to expect and she is his wife, even though none of them are happy with the fact.

But still, he tries to picture someone else when he takes himself in hand. At first he imagines curly brown hair and round brown eyes on a sweet shy face but it quickly turns sour and he can not block the jeers of the castle’s guards or a woman’s cries and then he scrapes desperately for anyone else’s features. He tries to imagine the tall and thin redheaded kitchen maid, the one who the guards are always talking about. He pictures her long pink hand touching his chest eagerly and then going downwards until she reaches his cock. He can almost feel her tongue eagerly lapping on him and moaning at the same time. Her caresses turning more and more swift and her mouth sucking off with force…

He, distracted with the image of another woman, almost loses his chance but he plunges in to his wife’s cunt a second before spilling. He groans and leans on her motionless form for several minutes before retreating.

With tired eyes he sits up on his haunches and sees the wet bright blue eyes of the lady, her face all scrunched up. He pushes down something alike guilt in his chest and decides to return to the settee before falling sleep.

_I can give her the bed for herself at least._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, i deleted the chapter and uploaded it again. Like i said, im very glad this fic has such response , much more compared than the one s i got with my previous fics. your kudos and comments motivate me to keep going as much as my love for rare pairings

The lunch after the wedding day it’s a somber affair.

Many of the guest are hungover and therefore morose, as her groom is the finest example. As he is now her lord and husband she restrains herself, barely, and does not sneer.

Only a few talk and that is all on the lower tables were minor nobles such as landed knights are seated. Here in the head table the only one who talks is the lady genna but her efforts are directed solely toward her brothers.

Lord Tywin’s answers are monosyllabic and his expression is one disinterested boredom but he is courteous to both his younger siblings and catelyn’s wonders why he does not extend the same treatment to his son and heir.

She is no fool, she knows the lord Lannister is a proud man and Tyrion is a dwarf. It must gall his pride being so powerful and rich but having a less than stellar heir, much more if his eldest son had been so well built and skilled warrior and very promising for what she heard all those years ago… before he joined the kingsguard.

But it goes more beyond aggravation or dislike. Tywin Lannister does hate his son. And as much as she dislikes being married to the imp of casterly rock, beyond his physical deformities he is as any man is.

And now that the shock at being confronted with his ugliness has passed, she feels somewhat disappointed and a little ashamed. He has no tail or privates of both man and woman. In truth, he has a big head and stunted limbs and his eyes from different colors make her uncomfortable but he is no monster… and they are wedded and bedded so she has to make peace with the fact.

She sighs and from the corner of her eye she can see lord kevan giving her husband a kind smile when he lifted his eyes from his plate. From one of the tables in the corners a blonde little girl dressed in a simple dress from green wool runs away from her septa with something in her hands and catelyn is surprised to see her approach the head table.

Her surprise increases tenfold when the girl offers her a red rose while curtsying and mumbling a soft –‘’My lady, for you’’- and that is the reason she accepts it. Then the girl darts to her lord husband’s side and pulls on his sleeve insistently.

She can see that when he does glance in her direction his ugly face gets bright with the force of his smile, and it does make him… no so ugly. He quickly leans on his chair to hug her before whispering something on her ear that makes the child laugh. Then the little girl suddenly glances at her right and at seeing the scowling septa walking towards her she flees towards the exit, her small legs moving unexpectedly quickly .

Catelyn is then staring dumbly at the rose in her hands while her mind is furiously trying to connect the dots. _She has dark blond hair and green eyes and with such simple dress and only a septa for company she can not be a some trueborn cousin. The girl must be three or at most four years old and Tyrion is almost eighteen… And he has a fame to visit brothels and frequent loose women and ….. SHE IS HIS BASTARD._

She glares at the rose in her hands and contemplates crushing the thing and dumping it to the floor before she notices tyrion’s eyes on her. His expression is no longer glum or happy, he watches her with those odd eyes and his gaze is cold and judging . He does not say anything but he appears to dare her to refuse his child’s gift and catelyn fights down the anger rising on her belly.

_How dares he to have his bastard around, in our wedding feast besides !!! He thinks i’ll bare the shame of having her here, in my new home ?. She is nothing more than sinful creature born on the wrong side of the sheets !!. She is not supposed to exist, she should die and ….._ – she flinches-

She is assaulted by a memory she often tries to forget. She remembers clearly praying on the sept in front the statue of the mother, her knees bruised by the long hours and her clothes still having the iron scent of blood. She had had another miscarriage after the previous stillbirth and nothing could console her. Not even ned holding her in his arms after she cried and screamed for two days. She had decided to retire to the sept to pray for the soul of her child when she heard _jon snow_ playing in the courtyard. And she had been invaded by a sudden rage, her grief pushed to a corner of her mind. She had baled her fists and snarled while still kneeling on the hard stone floor of the sept, and she had wondered aloud why the gods decided to take her trueborn babes and leave this abomination as the sole child of her husband. She had been so wounded by the fact that all her children were born death or had left her body long before they could survive in the world that she had shuffled to the far away corner that contained the statue of the stranger.

_\- Please my lord, take that creature and give me back my children. Let the shame that my husband brought into our home be no more. He doesn’t deserve to be alive. He is a creature born of sin, lust, weakness and betrayal. He is not supposed to exist, as the babes I lost were. He should die …-_

-‘’ My lady’’- her lord husband deep voice startles her.

She looks up to see and he has a concerned expression. The lady genna is also looking while the lord tywin talks tersely with his brother. Her eyes are wet and she discretely dries them with a handkerchief.

-‘’Excuse my lord, your _daughter_ – she has to swallow to say it - reminded me of the …. the children I lost’’- she says while she raises and walks quickly to where she believes her chambers are.

She ignores his alarmed voice calling _lady catelyn_ in the distance and realizes she has the rose still clutched in her hands.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thank you for reading, leave a coment =)

Tyrion knows not what to make _with_ his wife.

His father’s voice resonates inside in his mind. _Bed her and get her with child._

But he ignores it.

After their first night together he does not desire to repeat the act, though he knows it necessary. To have her conceive so quickly with her previous history would be.. unlikely and extremely lucky and the gods do not favour him. _Nor her._

But still, he can give her this chance, can’t he?. Also if his lord tywin’s pester him he will say that he is sure she is pregnant and having marital relations in her state would harm whatever child she is carrying.

Also, surely her problem is not to get pregnant but carry a successful pregnancy?.

And he can hope it had been her previous husband’s fault. He is not so blind as the blame the woman alone, and from his readings on several books of medicine, though many do not want to admit it, there was proven occasion where the fault lay with the man.

_After all if the seed is rotten, it does not matter how fertile the soil is._

But that does not soothe him at all.

He is a dwarf and he also knows he can pass it to the children he may sire. And he does not want to think what would happen if the lady births a child afflicted with same condition he has. His father has no love for him and nor uncle kevan or aunt genna can do anything once he has decided on a course of action.

_-‘’I wanted to carry you to the see and let the waves take you the day you were born... but I let you live because were a Lannister and my blood. And your mother died with you in her arms, as if trying to protect you from me, even when you were the reason she was dying..’’´-_

He looks down to his short wide hands and short legs under his pale blond and black hair. There is no doubt of what his father would do…. and he does not want to think of any of his children having the same fate as the ones of princess elia or the ones of the late lady tarbeck.

_Stabbed a hundred time or its head bashed against a wall. Thrown down on a well or maybe if it is a girl her tongue cut down and forced to join the silent sisters._

Tyrion shudders.

If the lady births any child such as he is… he would have to take the babe and run for their lifes. He should start hoarding gold and purchasing some kind of transport, a ship ideally, with some loyal crew. Just in case the lady is indeed pregnant and…

_I shall not let him harm my child. I would not allow you to treat it as you have treated me, with scorn and disgust_ _and always making me feel unworthy and less than human._

He wonders for a second if the lady would join him, after all she is still his wife and she is bound to him in a way he is not bound to her. But he can not imagine _her_ fleeing westeros and leaving all her material comforts for a less than perfect child, with her sneers and haughty manners and her endless pride, almost Lannister-like.

And if he is gone she could always return to her father, a widow again, and free to marry whoever her father wishes, though he can not imagine what sort of man would take her. _Maybe the lordling who fought for her hand against her husband’s brother… what is he called?... Baelish._

With luck it shan’t come to that. It would be better that she remains barren instead of birthing a dwarf babe or a sickly one. Both because he does not yearn to leave the rock and the endless power the Lannister name grants him and because he can not imagine the lady loving such a child and he is not sure of how to raise a child on his own.

_Though maybe I am not fair, after all her miscarriages and stillbirths surely she is so desperate to hold a living child in her arms that she could overlook some faults , can’t she?_

But he remembers clearly her sour face at the wedding feast when kind small joy gifted her a rose. Her expression was confused for a second and then turned as if she was forced to suck a lemon. But then it had changed again, with pain , anger and finally.. guilt. Her pale face had gotten paler before she surreptitiously had dried her eyes with a light blue handkerchief and then she had stood up and bolted away, keeping her pace even when he and both uncle kevan and aunt genna had called her.

He frowns.

_-‘’Excuse my lord, your daughter ….reminded me of the_ _…._ _the children I lost’’-_

Maybe he is right after all. He does not liker still but maybe she is not so .. unfeeling. He tries to imagine being in her position, being born a woman. He scoffs instantly.

And should have made my life even more a nightmare than it already is. Even cersei being so fair and tall envies me my cock. I could go on almost as much as I like, I could frequent brothels and I do consort with mercenaries , I can decide who I fuck and..

Various images fly in his mind. Tysha in her simple white dress at their wedding in front of drunken septon. They lying for the first time the night before. Their first attempts at cooking, laughing with burned fingertips and empty stomachs. Her screams when the first men of the guard took her. Her vacant stare as he put a golden coin in her broken hands.

His eyes burns but he manages to banish the memories.

_And I can even marry a peasant and live to tell the tale…. If I had been born a dwarf and a woman…._

Just the mere thought of it and he can feel his father’s rage, as certain as the air he breathes. He is sure that at least he would have been sent to the silent sisters without a tongue, after being forced to watch as they tortured his lover, a male counterpart of tysha from another world, in the worst ways they could possibly think. At worse…. His father would have called him a whore, he would have say if he is so fond of peasants he could have all the Lannister guard for himself.

He reaches down for his strong ale and gulps the whole bottle in one go. He shacks out his foolish thoughts and strides of to his chambers.

He waddles into the long corridors trying to keep his mind blank until he sees the lady herself striding of his rooms with purpose and he barely avoids colliding with her.

It’s an awkward situation and they both stand silent until the lady’s face changes from unsure and the set of her jaw gets tighter, her blue eyes blazing as if she dares him to defy her.

-‘’Would you join me in my chambers this night… lord Tyrion?’’- her voice is hard and determined and Tyrion knows not what to make of her.


	6. Chapter 6

She had cried in her chambers for hours. The memoir of ned and every loss she had still fresh on her mind.

Of her first child, perfect little rickard with his red hair and purple face, or her first babe that was born in winterfell, a girl with a tiny body and almost translucent skin, or the next child which had been too young for the maester to know its sex and its dark hair at odds with its pale bloodless body. Or all the other times when she had been barely more than four months with child and her surprise when she started bleeding suddenly, with small thick cots of blood leaping out of her womb.

Her mind also reminiscence about the… child she never bore in her body.

A child’s loud sobbing the day after jorah mormont’s letter arrived. The _boy_ in the arms of the aged maester ludwing, black curls flowing as the boy shacked his head, his white face scrunched in distress and big fat tears running down his cheeks, his high voice breaking when vayon poole gave him his condolences and the servants called him _my lord._

Or his frightened face when the lord flint knelt in the floor as lord umber declared him lord of winterfell in the great hall, his white little face going paler and paler as all the men in the room started bowing and kneeling and pledging their allegiance to the _last stark._

_Or his flinch when he saw me from the corner of the hall._

_He had looked so much like ned and I … I could not bare it. Maybe if I would have been able to do my duty and some of my children would have survived i could have been a mother to him, like I promised to the seven in the godswood after I prayed for him to die and he actually felt deadly sick. Maybe if he had been a daughter and not a son I could have loved him knowing that no lord would try to usurp any of my children for a bastard girl….maybe if ned would have some surviving siblings or cousins with the stark name I could have loved him, sure in the knowledge that he was no threat and just a motherless child…. maybe if he had not looked so much like ned I would have not been reminded on a daily basis of my failures….. maybe I could have loved him if he would have looked like the woman who birthed him, whom some say was the daughter of a fisherman who smuggled ned from the vale to the north or even the lady dayne who cast herself into the sea after ned brought her brother’s bones into her castle…._

_Or maybe I would have hated him more, because it would have reminded me that ned had loved someone so much as to sully his honor and I was a duty to him, necessary for my father’s armies and nothing more, a burden he had shouldered with no reward, with an empty womb that could not give him living children._

She gulps down tears and drinks the cold tea that the servants left in her table before she dismissed them. Catelyn sees her bleeding finger and is surprised to notice that she still has that _damned_ rose in her grip. The thing is now crushed, the petals are falling off and her hand is sticky with savia.

She thinks about the little girl, her husband’s bastard. So polite and sweet, a little lady already in spite her baseborn blood, so like….

_Jon snow._

Though she does not want to think of it, she knows that is probable that she never bares her husband an heir, as she could not manage to do it for dear ned, who was as healthy as he could possibly be and though he does not love or like Tyrion, and probably never will, she is aware of the situation she is in.

While ned’s all family was already dead or gone when she joined him at winterfell and they could not pressure her to fulfill her primary duty from the grave and Tyrion does have an older sister and her children as back up heirs aside from his many cousins, Tywin Lannister would not settle for less than a grandson as the next lord of the rock, a grandson with the Lannister name at that.

He would never have a woman as his lawful successor and much less a Baratheon prince. His pride would not let him name his brother as the next lord, as much as he may care for the man. And the seven hells would freeze before a half frey would manage to squish himself in the position of warden of the west.

And that leaves her at the beginning.

This time she _has_ to do her duty. She knows she _has_ to.

Lord Lannister is as ruthless as he is powerful, he lacks honor and his primary concern is to better his house and the Lannister name and she doubts very much that if after a number of years she has not manage to produce a child there would not be some kind of… _accident_ to befall her.

It would be very discreet of course, she is still a high lady and her father cares almost as much as him about the family name.

_Maybe I would bleed out after a miscarriage or childbed fever would claim me if my child is a stillbirth, maybe in my grief I would cast myself from a window._

She narrows her eyes and feels deep inside her that there is no more room for failure. Her father had to accept the imp’s suit for her hand and he would not take her back if this marriage fails or the seven forbid, _it’s annulled._ She is no longer his beloved cat, the acting lady of riverrun or even the lady of winterfell.

_I am lady Lannister_ , she says and frowns.

_You could have not remained in riverrun for ever, my daughter, you knew it. Not when you are still young enough to bear a child and secure an alliance. I have allowed time for you to mourn lord stark but i would have you settled up and with a family of your own and as the next lady of the rock the only other woman more powerful would be the queen and everyone knows about her relationship with king Robert. No, don’t interrupt me. Any child of your body would be the next warden of the west and a cousin to the next king, the lord of the richest kingdom in westeros !! . As unpleasant looking as the imp may be he is just a man at the end of the day, you are smart so flatter him and make him listen to you, catelyn. He would not be used to be that kind of attention from a lady. You need to influence him so when he succeeds the old lion he would think of the riverlands as his ally, you have been raised for many years as my heir so you know the kind of deal I want with the westerlands…. never forget that even if you had the stark name and now the Lannister’s you are still a tully at heart. Family , Duty and Honour . Do not let me down again, cat. I don’t want to hear more complains , the ravens have departed the last moon and you will travel the next week to casterley rock so pack your best dresses and everything you need. I can not leave the riverlands with Edmund sick but you would have a suitable escort for your journey._

She let some tears fall freely before drying her face and then squares her shoulders and walks away from her room, in search of her duty.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, thank you for reading this fic

The year pass by, and Tyrion reflects briefly on their marriage.

After the first uncomfortable months when they only saw it each other if _she_ decided to visited his room at night, they had fallen in a sort of companionship.

They are not close, of course not.. but both are trying to make an effort.

_And at least the misunderstanding about little joy is cleared up._

He bids her good morrow and they dine together in the great hall with the rest of the family, they talk in the afternoon over a glass wine and even when does not have to lay with her at her most fertile time he always kiss her cheek and wishes her a good night. She usually ask about his day and orders the kitchens to prepare his favorite foods, and she regales him with beautifully embroidered shirts, always on his exacts measurements and occasionally joins him in the library to discuss some of their favorites books.

He knows she dislikes his trips to lannisport, ostensibly to deal with the merchant’s guild but in truth to … _sample_ other kind of goods, but she never openly complains so he tries to make it up for her and returns with beautiful gowns and some rare jewell purchased from essosi merchants that are always received with a smile.

They are still awkward with each other, always as if trying to not step upon each other’s toes but at least they have managed to not hate each other. _Not like cersei and Robert._

He shudders at thinking about their trip to the capital.

They had arrived just in time for the birth of his second nephew and as a goodsister to the queen, catelyn had been present when cersei presented prince _tommen_ to the king. Acording to his wife, things had gone ugly very quick. Robert Baratheon had returned from his hunt with a red face from wine and at hearing his last son’s name, he bellowed at his wife about disobeying his orders. Cersei had screamed right back at him, saying that as he was not present when she labored she was in her right to name her son as she liked. The couple had been engrossed in a battle of wills, accusing each other of many failings and so only catelyn and her sister had noticed how ser Jaime had almost unsheathed his sword when Robert appeared ready to strike his weary queen. But _his_ wife was of a quick mind and had jumped in action and distracted Robert away from the cersei, the man appearing to cool down somewhat in the presence of his dear late friend’s widow and her concerned gaze.

Of course things could not have been gone completely well, Robert had taken the squalling babe from cersei’s arms making her shriek and cry and he promptly strode off from his wife’s chambers in the direction of the throne room, when he announced that prince _Eddard_ Baratheon had been born, he had called for a feast to be held and many toast were made by his courtiers, in honor of the little prince Eddard.

After that they had been ready to go back to the rock to escape but as they could not in the meantime they made themselves scarce and practically hided in their chambers.

However he has noticed that something has changed and catelyn appears to be pulling away from him. It’s is not that she is rude or rejects him when he actually ask her to pass time together but she appears wary and her gaze is faraway. She barely talks to anyone and prefers to keep to her rooms and he has noticed her looking with longing at his cousins’s children.

She appears sad and resigned and Tyrion does not what to do to make it better, his words does not cheer her up anymore and his bawdy tales that often make her smile behind her hands and shake in an futile effort to not laugh fall flat. It’s been weeks and nothing he says or does work.

He is in his small solar thinking about her when his wife appears and sits in the chair in front of him.

He looks over and frowns. The lady – _catelyn, my lord, in private you may call me catelyn_ \- wears a loose gown, something far more simple than he has ever looked on her and she appears pale, paler than she naturally is and there are dark circles under her beautiful eyes. She greets him with a murmur and that is just too much to Tyrion, the strong proud lady that arrived more than a year before is no more and though Tyrion did not like her at first he would have preferred her than .. this.

-‘’My lady, catelyn. Tell me, what is wrong ?’’-

She lifts her eyes and Tyrion is confused to see the warmness of her expression, however marred with sadness.

He tries to start again. –‘’Ehm… I have noticed you seem far away and… sad.’’- He inhales before speaking- ‘’I know not if father has told you something or you have received a letter but…’’- he wets his lips ‘’- but there is no rush, my lady. Some things take time to happen and we have not been married even two years, I hope you know I have come to enjoy your company and …’’- he trails off unsure of how to continue.

He looks at her and now she is smiling. Her face transforms and now her face glows, she then leans forward so she can put her slim soft hands over his broader shorter ones and give a little squeeze

-‘’I am with child, my lord’’- her voice is soft, softer than he ever heard and Tyrion freezes.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi to all, your comments make me happy.  
> this chapter was difficult to write as im not sure i portrayed jon's child mind okay.. also there are mentions of catelyn a+ parenting.   
> has she really suffered enough?

The wind howls terribly at night and all jon stark – formerly snow- can do is to hid himself under his blankets. He is in his father’s room – _my rooms… father is gone and this is my home, no matter what the lady stark have said –_ and he stares at the walls, bare from any adornment and all he want to do is sneak out of the room and go to the cripts so he may see his father’s staute and maybe sleep at it’s feet with only his blanket as pretection against the cold….but he can’t, he is ten now and almost a man grown, and the servants can’t, _just can’t_ ever know.. they will tell the steward and then the maester and all the castle will know that he is weak, weak and afraid.

And the lords… lord manderly would not chide him and only smile benignly but his eyes would be alert as always and jon know he would have found him wanting. Lord umber would pat his shoulder and drag him to the training yard to beat him to pulp but he is not a man of words or able to give confort but lord Bolton…. He would not spare a kind word or even ignore him, with his soft, soft voice and precise words he would make him feel as the fool he was.. and his cold pale eyes would stare at him in disgust and jon can not even tell torrhen because he may say something to someone and everyone would found him unworthy and they will hate him and wonder why the gods allowed his father to be killed and left them with a bastard green boy as their current lord paramount…

_-‘’ Snow’’-the word was said loud like a curse and colder than the wall, and his stomach twist into knots, jon had not wanted to gather her attention, not especially now that he knew she was leaving but he had thought that none would be here so early.. he thought again to flee and come back later but he could not manage it do it, she was talking to him and he had to be respectful._

_-‘’It should have been YOU.!!! The gods should have spared ned, my beloved husband and the lord of all north and taken You, bastard, into the seven hells. Ned should be here with me and we should have had at least three children if not for your cursed presence desecrating my home and my marriage. Go!! Go now and never dare to come here until I have departed or I’ll break your legs boy!’’-_

Tears gather in his eyes as the memory passes. He thinks of his orphaned state and hopeless engulfs him but he is careful to not make a sound and alert the guards at his door.

_Uncle benjen is at the wall where his duty lays … he could have never stayed here in winterfell even if he wanted it. Uncle Brandon and aunt lyanna died before I was born and I have no mother, father never told me anything about her , no matter how much I begged even when I asked him to send me to her so his wife would not be so angry… and father is dead now, as my hope to ever tknow my mother. I have no brother or sister or cousin and no family, I am alone …._

He burrows further into the pelts and blankets and misses the times when he could have old nan to coddle him or to tell him a story before he asleep.

His cheeks are wet and he quietly allows himself to whimper. _Papa, papa why? Why? why did you have to die?, you were the only one who loved me and you are gone and I have nothing but your name and your castle…. as I once wanted things to be , to be your heir_ \- he gulps - _and not a stain in your honor but I would have gladly stayed as a bastard forever if only you would still be alive. They all expect me to be this or that and to solve problems I can’t even comprehend, you were supposed to live papa, to explain me things and guide my steps but …. but.._

He cries. Big fat tears pour of his eyes and he decides to stand up and go to the chest he carefully hid, even from maester ludwind, below the bed. After some effort he manages to drag the thing out and slowly opens it, kneeling at the stone floor. It has the three things that he managed to snatch in the confusion before his father’s bones were buried and while the lady catelyn had closed herself in her chambers.

The last clothes his father wore before going to the iron islands, a doublet of grey velvet lined with wool and a pair of black britches that are too big for him even after this year …and the only letter he send to him before the final battle of pike.

He clutches the fabric in his small hands and manages to stead his breathing after his sadness abates and is no longer so powerful and consuming. He looks up to window and sees the sky turning lighter, to a dark blue color with some lilac shining. He gives the clothes a swift hug and climbs on to the bed again , trying to catch a little sleep before he needs to wake up.

_I’m meeting my betrothed tomorrow._

The mere though makes him feel as he has swallowed as stone.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi, sooo i thought about writing from someone else's perspective , i was not sure about the sex scene but i decided to let it on the chapter. tell what you think =)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is going to have descriptions of sex so i thought to warn you all since some people are very sensitive to that.

Petyr looks down at the letter in his hands, it was sent to him unopened, like the other ones that had been returned from both riverrun and the rock.

_Why cat? This was our chance, our only chance !!! After that sourpuss had finally died we could have been together, no matter what stubborn hoster had wanted. Only a word from you and I would have hired a small boat and whisked you away from another loveless marriage. How could your father could be so callous as to give you to that deformed ugly creature? Has he no regard for your feelings or thoughts and just uses you so he can achieve his goals?. All because he wanted more power , more reaches and more connections? All he ever wanted was that, he never really cared for your happiness , it was all power for him. He first sold you to the damned wild wolf, who would have killed me for defending you if not for your tears, he who fucked half the riverlands when he visited and was always from brawl to brawl, a mindless beast, unworthy of even kissing your boots .. but he was heir to that frozen wasteland and old hoster could not resist being grandfather to another warden . Then he gave you to stone faced ned, who had the balls to receive you at winterfell with his bastard already installed. He was not even as handsome as his brother and he never cherished you as you deserved and could not even give you a healthy child…. And it does not end with the two starks. Then that cursed man pawed you of to the demon monkey of the rock, who eats children, has a tail and has bedded all the whores from the westerlands… has he no regard to you? You have done your duty and he could have allowed you to marry for love but he could never have resisted the chance to being the grandfather of the lord of the richest kingdom of westeros, to have tully blood related to the Baratheon royalty by marriage.._

_And you don’t answer my letters…. at least lysa does, though dull and boring her words always are. What was it?. She has four children now, and has nothing else to talk about. Big ronnel, sweet alys, bold minisa and little jasper. I am sick of hearing about the children she insists must have been mine because her empty headed skull can not understand that I don’t want her nor that I have not forgotten how she came to me when I was delirious with milk of the poppy, laying on my sickbed, how she undressed herself first and then started fondling my manhood, how she never denied to be cat when I asked her… she did that because I have rejected her many times and she decided to take her chances knowing that I would never choose her over you._

His face twist into a grimace.He had thought after leaving riverrun that she had been indeed cat but when correspondence between lysa and him resumed after the birth of her first son , the woman quickly told him it was her and she had being with child and that lord hoster made her abort it with tansy.

_The only right thing you did , old man._

Tomorrow he would travel to the eyre, to presents his reports on the taxes collected in gultown in person to lord arryn and he is dreading to meet the dammed woman again. Her watery eyes mooning at him and her anxious hands always moving, her fingers red and chaffed because her habit of biting her nails and the most annoying of all, her voice. _She is nothing like you cat, only a pale substitute, inferior in every way …. but things need to be done so I can climb higher in life and then , some day, when your husband dies as he rightfully should , we could finally be together._

He tosses the letter into the first drawer from the left and locks it with the key dangling from his neck. He sits and leans back in his padded chair and pulls down on the cord at the side of his head.

His grey-green eyes scan the room and he waits patiently until the woman arrives.

She looks young and has bright copper hair tied in twin braids, her cheekbones are sharp and her mouth small but her eyes are a little slanted, betraying some essosi heritage, but they are a light blue and she is slender and tall like cat was when he was still a ward in riverrun and played to give kisses to her.

-‘’My lord’’- the girl curtsies but it lacks the grace and pose of his lady.

He says nothing and the girl gives him a crooked smile

-‘’I was waiting for you to call me, you are my favou- ‘’- petyr interrupts her with a wave of a hand.

-‘’I don’t pay you for conversation. Undress’’-

She does and he looks to her soft , well proportioned body and feels himself stir. He grabs her pale breast and caresses her pink puffy nipples, the skin is soft there and the girl moans low throwing back her head, his hands squeezes the two mounds of flesh tightly and then descend down to her ricbcage and flat navel towards the small thatch of red hair. He fondles her for a while and feels her grow wet and so he tells her to go to the bed.

The girl quickly obeys him and lays on the bed before he tells her from above to get on her hands and knees. Her movements are swift but she whines a little complaing about his bluntness and he slaps her buttocks twice before sheating himself in her tight warmness. The feeling is amazing and she looks so like cat that … right there he could almost convince himself that it was _her_ beneath him but the way the girl meets his thrusts and starts screaming in her high pitched voice ruins the pretense.

He sighs.

He is known to favour redhaired whores but none could ever feel as great as if it was cat the one with him. _And you are not even a good actress sweetheart._

He grabs her jaw shut and finally she catches his meaning and shuts up but the illusion is already shattered so he pulls out and spread her plump asscheeks wide open. Her pink puckered hole looks tiny and tight but his cock is already wet from her cunt so he eschews the oil in his nightable and lines up in her arse. He push slowly at first and the girl squeals and wiggles but he grabs hard from the hip and with his right thumb he stretchs her arsehole, making space for his cock and making visible the pale pink mucose of hers. He keeps fingering her hole, making it slightly wider until his lust does not allow him to wait more and he shoves himself into her and push the small of her back until she is lying flat on her tummy with her ass high in the air. He keeps thrusting in and out while she whines until he spills inside.

_Cat._


	10. Chapter 10

Catelyn remains in her rooms as much as she can. She is almost eight moons with child and not only her current girth is the reason for that.

She is not keen on the lannisters aside her husband. Some are tolerable, like lady genna or lord kevan but none are close to her and she does not trust them. Tyrion may love them and she can admit they both treat him with the kindness and respect and appear to love him, unlike the old lion, but she is suspicious, especially about her husband’s uncle.

After all... does not kevan’s line is set to inherit if the old lion’s _somewhat_ fail?. The young child lancel could be the next lord of the rock if she remains barren, though lord tywin would be furious.

_And my father even more._

And the lady genna was the _the facto_ Lady of casterly rock before her arrival. Kevan’s wife, lady dorna, is too meek to fight the golden lioness for the title but _she_ is not and more than once they have clashed about the household decistions. The older woman is bold, bolder than most men she knew, and her presence commands respect in a way not too unlike her oldest brother’s…

But heir relationship is too strange for her, even when she can admit that the lannisters have their own type of family loyalty, but still there is much sharpness between them , too much knowing looks and implied backstory and they treat each othertoo unlike the much respectful and loving way her father treated all his children and was treated in turn.

_Before I disappointed him so much… before I failed to do my duty and snow ended as lord of winterfell and I as the useless woman who let the trueborn line of the starks die out._

She closes her eyes.

She does not want to think about _him._ But now that her child is so close to be born her mind sometimes strays about the child she left in winterfell, the child that was never hers but only ned’s , the child that if her husband had not betrayed his vows to her could have been hers in another life.

_Maybe he could have been little rickard’s stronger twin and I could have been the mother ned always hoped I could be for his son._

From what she unwilling learned from king Robert on the capital, the child had been betrothed to a karstark, the youngest girl of lord rickard, presumably to wash the taint of his baseborn blood with the old blood of karrion stark.

She caresses her belly in thought. Now that her anger had abated and she had accepted her new marriage she can think objectively about ned’son. He was never loud or brash or had a silver tongue for lies as bastard always have and his character reflected much on the one of his father. It had been so difficult for her to see him grow at the castle when she had lost every child she carried and she had taken her anger in him. The most she ever did was a light slap and scream at him but since the moment the boy understood she was not his mother he was always terrified of her and her treatment of him was the only true cause of disagreement between her and ned.

_And it had only fueled my anger at the bastard because ned loved him so much._

But now she is here and – the seven willing – she has going to have a child of her own and she does not need to think of _him ,_ and the future she was robbed as the mother of the next lord stark.

_And my son would be next lord of the rock and the blood of the tullys of riverrun and cousin to the next king beside. There would not be a man as powerful as him._

She can console any past upset with that knowledge. She will have a boy and the babe will live past his first hours. This time everything would go right. It has to be. After all she has suffered surely the gods surely would reward her faith and suffering with live children, won’t they?.

_And I can not fail, especially not when my good-father has summoned more than ten bannermen’s wifes and mothers to act as my ladies and to comfort and guide me at childbirth. More like to spy me and gauge if im strong enough for the birth or if the child is sickly._

She frowns.

Catelyn is courteous with all of them but she truly likes few, like the wife of summer crakehall who is a motherly woman with a good head on her shoulders and even if she is too brash, she appreciates her no-nosense attitude. The same can be said about both lord marbrand’s mother and lady lydenn, who are good sensible followers of the seven.

Of the other ladies, only lady prester and the ancient lady farman have been truly kind. The rest, lady westerling lady estren, lady kenning and lady yarwick are too shrewd ….they are _polite_ and _respectful_ but their eyes are sharp and calculating and she does not doubt that if she dies they will put their daughters or nieces as the next wife of Tyrion.

The thought makes her oddly angry, and not just because she would be replaced and dead but also because she has grown _fond_ of him. He would never be her knight in shining armor but he is smart and kind when he wants to and he is her husband and the father of her child and for that she will always make an effort to be dutiful and loyal to him.

_As it his rightful due… it would not due to be anything else, even if he was truly the lecher they painted him to be._

Her son, _their son,_ grows inside her and they will be a family now.

_Like the one lysa has with her ancient husband, there are even rumors she is pregnant again._

And she frowns because her sister barely writes anymore. The last letter she sent to the rock was short and to the point, explaining she was very busy in court, especially now that the betrorthal between her daughter alys and the oldest prince had been announced.

_If my sansa had lived the king would have betrothed his son to her and not to your alys, little sister. My daughter would have been queen .. but it was not to be , there is no reason to make another alliance with the Lannisters as to betroth cousins._

She is still thinking about her sister and the first babe she bore at winterfell when someone interrupts her clearing her throat.

She looks up to see the handsome face of the lady westerling. The woman bores a placid smile but catelyn can not shake the feeling that she is sneering at her.

-‘’Would you care to joins us to the sept, lady catelyn?’’- she says with a tilt of her head.

_Always lady catelyn or my lady, never lady Lannister… do you still hope for your daughter to be mistress of the rock? . You are shameless, my lady, to suggest Tyrion marry an unflowered girl._

Catelyn stares and can admit that the older woman is truly striking even her lightly tanned skin and almond eyes set her apart from the other women in her company. It’s obvious that somewhere one of her ancestors came from essos and according to the rumours, her mother or grandmother was a witch who performed blood magic.

_Preposterous. Though that may be why lord Lannister rejected your daughter for his nephew, right my lady?._

-‘’Of course, praying to the mother could only hel.. ‘’- she starts graciously but a flash of pain quickly cuts her words.

-‘’My lady?’’- her voice is soft but her eyes are clear and alert and focused on her large belly.

-‘’It’s nothing, just a light cramp. Help me to stand and we’ll be right on ou...- ‘’

Catelyn hugs herself and crouches over her belly in pain. All her middle is taut and hard and it hurts so much she knows something is wrong when she feels blood flowing from her and rapidly staining the padded chair she was sitting on.

She tries to stand up supporting her weight on her arms but her strength leaves her when another contraction envelops her . She falls over the lady westerling, her belly being squashed over and her wrist twisted over itself and she can hear the woman screaming for the guards before her vision turns dark.

_It’s too early ...tyrion, father I’m so sorry._


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi, everyone, sorry i have not posted as quickly as before, work is a bitch. this is a cersei pov , she has always intrigued me and this was my chance to write from her point of view, tell me if you like it or if you have any ideas about the catelyn, tyrion or the baby.. thank you for following my fic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again, i was wondering who do you think jon arryn and robert should have choosen to be asha's husband, like , i think robert would naturally be furios at seeing ned die at the iron islands but ned would know and try to protect the greyjoy children sooo, i don think robert actually killed them , but theon greyjoy is going to be fostered/bethroted by them and they are going to marry off asha but to who?

Kingslanding is as always, the reeking of piss and worse is smelt even here at the red keep by the grace of the most unbearable summer she has ever faced.  
  
No matter how many pages or maids she has fanning her about or how many iced teas she drinks she can not escape the feeling of sweat poolling under her dress and shift, just below her breasts and on the sides of her belly. It makes her feel like a dirty sweaty peasant wench and robert's antics are making things more awful.  
  
He rages because he can not go to hunt to the kingswood and it's too dam hot for his usual _escapades_ to the city and because he is really no more than a brat in spite of his crown , he has taken to demand her company not only when taking his rights but also at the day where he bores her to tears with his many times retold war stories and the like.  
  
At least she managed to talk him out of dressing down as a merchant and his wife and go to _explore_ the city. She does not want to think how hot it must be at the slums of flea bottom and she can almost smell the great unwashed at their hovels.  
  
  
She grimaces.  
  
  
And she has not forgotten his need to honour his dead friend. _Eddard baratheon sounds ridiculous!!!. Even more so than eddard lannister though nobody must know, my children have to bear to have that pig's name but they are true lions, I made sure of that._  
  
She would never endure his seed to take root and grow in her womb, to sully her body more than it already does because she can not deny him in the night, she thinks with a sneer.  
  
She would perfectly happy for him to drink himself to an early grave, especially after he had betrothed dear joffrey to the daughter of simpering, sniveling lysa arryn.... and without even consulting her !!!. Though at least was to the eldest and not to the youngest brat who was always causing some sort of trouble and had dirt on her skirts.  
  
And to top all bad news, that fat trout her little brother has married had quickened. _The cow surely must be happy , strutting around at casterly rock like a peacock, like she was the true lady of the westerlands._ _  
_  
But she will not let that woman steal her birthright !! The rock is hers, hers and her children . It’s tommen’s and _not_ of the half fish's spawn of the imp.  
  
All because she is a woman ¡¡ , she can not claim her inheritance openly no matter that she is the eldest of the three and the most intelligent and brave and beautiful …. but as she lacks the cock she was sold away, to serve as a broodmare to robert instead of taking her rightful place as her father’s heir.

_Father is blind too, he is much enamored with the idea of Jaime returning home and disposing of his white cloak , for him to marry some empty headed trollop so he could have his precious grandson to succeed him as lord that he is willing to settle for the imp’s son with that wretched woman who could not even bare a young healthy husband a son. Never mind that I produced already three perfect golden children._

At least the half fish spawn is likely to die, the useless woman could not keep the thing even nine months inside her and had an early the delivery according to her informants.

She may not be there but she has loyal servants that are her ears and eyes and one of the trout’s ladies have already wrote to her.

_And I’m willing to sacrifice little lancel to your daughter if you manage smother the thing or its mother when none is looking.. even better if both die.… catelyn tully was tempting fate , if after eight pregnancies with a normal man as the father she had no living child she really should have not accepted the imp for the next try. None would be surprised if she passes away with her offspring._

Though she has to be careful, very careful. If someone has inkling she was behind the deaths of her little brother’s wife and child….. .

_No. They may think and whisper but I’m queen and nobody would be so stupid as to accuse me. Even if father suspects or actually knows I did it he would not punish me, I’m his daughter and going against me it’s going again himself and the Lannister name. No matter what the imp says father would never allow for a scandal to erupt within the family, to sully our ancient name in front of all the realms. And without options, because I doubt even he could manage to coerce another woman to marry the imp, he would have to take tommen as his heir… or even myrcella if Robert decides to keep a spare for his line._

And then her son would be lord of the westerlands ….. or maybe it would be little myrcella … it would certainly fulfilling, to see her daughter as the ruling lady of casterly rock, to settle in the role she was owed and denied all her life.

_And you would not like that at all, would you father? … for all your greatness you are still a man and think that everyone who has a cock is worthy and everyone who doesn’t is not, that im only good as to be a wife to someone and have no worth of my own but only my husband’s._

The thought makes her frown, but quickly she cools down and the creases in her forehead disappear.

_But I’m a lioness and Tyrion, his tedious wife and Robert and all the others are nothing but prey … and they shall hear me roar._


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait, i appreaciate all your coments and kudos

Her head feels strange, as is she was swimming and can not move as swiftly as she is used to, like she has to make the effort to push water aside if she wants to move her body at all. And she is tired, so very tired.

From the corner of her eyes sometimes she can detect light and if she makes a supreme effort, some noise, but that is all. From time to time it occurs to her that she has something important to do or that something important has happened, but her thoughts are sluggish and the appeal of sleeping and going back unto unconsciousness is overpowering so she does not fight it.

Sometimes she feels something _– someone, she corrects herself -_ moving her body and cleaning her, she does not mind it as long as they – _I have heard various sounds at the same time-_ let her sleep . And she keeps sleeping.

She dreams of the sunny days in her childhood home, of her mother’s sweet voice and father’s kind smile when she was little and lysa was only a babe in a cradle and they three passed the morning in the gardens eating fruit and being happy. She dreams of the sweet kisses petyr gave her when they were so young and naïve but this time lysa does not yell and cry , she just giggles under her hand and calls them to play again. She is happy there in her dreams and she will be happy forever iF she can keep dreaming all her life but _things_ change.

 _Someone_ keeps forcing some liquid down her throat , and when time passes, catelyn can feel the taste of it. It’s sweet and cloying and it sticks on the back of her tongue and she _grimaces._

_I moved my face. I felt my forehead wrinkle and lips pursing,, even if the effort of doing so made me sleep again._

She does not like it at all, and she thinks,- _thinks , after weeks of being in the realm of dreams and fantasies –_ of who could be , to give her something she does not like.

And then she tries to remember of who are the people close to her, who could give her things she likes or does not like. And some flashes pass through her mind. An old woman dressed in robes with light blue eyes, an angry looking old blonde man, a younger kinder version of him and large woman with piercing green eyes, a small youth with grey-green eyes and a wicked small, an gruff looking man with aurburn-grey hair and small man with a black eye and the other green, a tall woman with tan skin and haughty manners, a taller woman with a thick figure and loud voice, an old shriveled lady dressed in in yellow velvet, a man with chains around his neck and a frail looking woman with a receding chin with a veil over her head and a ruby pendant at her throat.

Then she tries to remember who they are, _who_ she is.

At first she comes with nothing, her mind blank . but then she decides to analyze her dreams, and she _remembers._

_My father, he is a lord from…. the riverlands. And I have a sister, who must be a woman grown and not the little baby I saw in my dreams. But ….. mother never appeared in more dreams so she must be long dead. The boy I kissed was my father’s ward from the vale, poor…. too poor to marry me and he almost died when fighting …-the names escapes me- my betrothed. Tall and strong.... Brandon, but he is also long dead. And his sister too. Why???. Oh, there was a war and ned,- ned!- became lord of winterfell and… he married me?. Yes, we were married here at riverrun and lysa was there too with an old man, arryn I think. But … I did not remain in winterfell . I returned to the riverlands so he must have died too. And father was angry and disappointed. Why did I return? I should have stayed there in his castle, it’s unseemly to abandon one’s husband and … Oh , yes, he died in a war I think, and I had to leave because of that. But there was a child too, with his long face and grey eyes and solemn demeanor. Why the boy was so sad? I should have comforted him, poor thing, to lose his only family so young … he… he must not have been mine own. But he was ned’s so how could he not have been mine?. Ned is my husband and so i must had been his…. No, he was ned’s alone I remember. And he stayed there when I returned home so he was not my child. Do I have a child? I don’t remember… No, I don’t. But I wanted one. I was so happy when the maester confirmed it and Tyrion smiled so widely…. Tyrion, Tyrion is my husband, even though he is so small, like a child really. And he is strange looking besides his stature. But his hair was so pale and pretty … maybe the baby will have his hair?. The baby, the baby…. But there is no baby, I don’t remember any baby. Where is it then?.Was it born yet? It must not, because i would remember my own son. The nursery was already prepared and his clothes were already there but he is not ….._

_Where is the baby? Where is my baby?_


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is a tyrion pov, i hope it's not ooc

He holds his son in his arms.

The baby has thin reddish blond hair and he is small, far smaller than he should be but – thank the gods – he is no dwarf, his proportions are normal and there is no big head or stunned limbs or even different colored eyes or blond and black hair that will condemn his life in the eyes of his lord father. 

But he is sickly and Tyrion worries.

This should have his wife’s moment of triumph, after all her failed pregnancies and dead babes, she should be receiving the well wishes of all the ladies of the westerlands in her chambers…but she is on the stranger’s door, still unconscious after weeks of the delivery and he knows not what to do.

The babe will not latch at the wetnurse’s teat and they have dismissed already five of them. He wails all day and night with a shrilly cry but he gains no weight and the maids have told him his bowels are loose. And he is so tiny and frail, skinny already when he should have been plump and pink, not…. not like this.

And tywin lannister’s disapproval of his first lannister grandchild is palpable. He remembers _him_ holding his son soon after his birth, when catelyn was still being attended by the maester, and inspecting him for possible deformities.

_Or weakness._

The lord of the rock had brusquely thrusted the small bundle on the maester’s arms and strode off without a word, leaving Tyrion standing in the doorstep, unsure of what to do.

And while uncle kevan did congratulate him on his birth, he also quietly told him to be prepared for the worse and he knows he was not talking only of his lady wife. Aunt genna was of the same mind, even though she did not talk openly about it, her gaze was hard but full of sympathy when she hugged him and told him to pray.

And while he does not believe in the gods, being the seven-who-are-one, the old gods or the drowned god he is ready to kneel in the sept, the godswood or even the beach if it makes the babe live. _And his mother too._

And though he is ashamed to admit it, even to himself, he _did_ not want the child at first. He laid with catelyn because she was his wife and it was his duty, much more knowing that his father was at his wits end after what happened with.., with that girl, but he did not want a child. And though he grew fonder of catelyn after their first disastrous coupling… he never really wanted a child _with her_.

But now that the baby is born and not just the bump on his wife belly , he is overwhelmed by ….love. It’s difficult to describe, as he has never felt this before but he loves the baby, and the feeling engulfs his body and makes his chest feel tight. He supposes it may be something similar of what Jaime feels for him and it makes him appreciate his brother even more.

But as Jaime always protected him when he was here, he knows he must protect the baby at all costs, either being from his father, his sister’s maquinations or it’s own frailness. Of the world if it needs be, but he would not let his son be harmed.

And he wants it live, his son, even if catelyn does not, though the thought settles in his stomach like a stone. _And i would have to loved him even more if his mother dies._

And he knows he must name the babe soon, even if catelyn does not wake up. _Much more if she never wakes up._ But he can not bear it, not yet at least, not when the maester had say that she _may_ recover and live, but that is extremely unlikely that she will ever fall pregnant again or that if she does, it would be her death.

He cares not for more children or his father’s anger at that fact or that his only direct heir is sickly.

He wishes to catelyn to live, so she could see his son, _their son,_ grow bigger and stronger.

He wishes Jaime was here with him. His older brother would not judge him by his fears, and at least would provide a kind ear to pour out his worries, even though he could not really help either his son or catelyn. _And it would be the first time he could actually be an uncle, much more since cersei’s children are also of his own seed._

He looks down at his son. The baby is sleeping now, after crying himself to sleep, but he remembers his blueish-green eyes and tiny hands with oddly sharp nails and he remembers cersei’s oldest son when he visited the red keep so many years ago.

Joffrey may now be a spoiled brat, already too much fond of cruelty and violence but he was once a babe, a babe that his sister absolutely loved and ruined in equal measure.

_But he was once small, and innocent._

He sighs, he was never close to him, thanks to cersei’s jealousy and distrust, but he is fond of myrcella who is a sweet child, with all her mother’s beauty and none of her nature and little tommen is a plump toddler, happy to be with anyone who gives him sweets. But he does not know what to do with a son. He does not know how to raise a child, much less alone, without his lady wife.

_A son with no mother, and likely to stay that way._

And he can not rely on how his mother raised him , since the lady Joanna died shortly after his birth and he would never ask cersei. The closest he has to a mother in truth is his aunt genna, and though he loves her , she is not his mother.

_But uncle kevan is a good man, and a good father._

Tyrion idly remembers that when he was a child he desired many times kevan was his father instead of the cold stranger who looked at him with disgust. And uncle kevan, though loyal as he is to tywin, would help him to raise his son, if catelyn dies. His wife, the lady dorna, is a kind quiet, pious woman with no ambition, she would take pity of a motherless child, no matter that the babe pushes away the chances of lancel ever inheriting the rock.

_Please, mother, font of mercy , have compassion and let my son outlive his mother and myself. Please maiden, let my son keep his innocence until he is a man grown and able to protect himself. Please, warrior, give my wife strength as childbirth is a woman’s war, give my son strength to outgrow his sickness. Please smith, give the maesters the ability to heal catelyn and my son. Please father, my son is innocent of his father and mother’s sins, judge him justly. Please crone, give me wisdom so I could raise my child correctly, even more if his mother dies. Please stranger, do not take my wife or my child, for I care about her and love him so much._


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i hope you like this.
> 
> also, many don't celebrate christmas and that is okay, but for those who do, happy christmas.

Catelyn wants to scream.

But no matter how much effort she makes she can not open her eyes. She rages every day but when more time pass – _and she is not sure of how long_ -she becomes more aware of her surroundings, she detects more voices and she is able to identify their owners but she can not open her damned eyes !!!. She can not move her hands or arms but sometimes, and only when she almost burst out of angriness, she manages to frown or weep, something that her ladies or the maester like to comment.

She hears tyrion’s voice every now and then. His mumbled words are difficult to understand but she manages to catch _baby_ and _son_ and she wants to cry from joy. She does not have to mourn for another babe, not when she has a son with her husband.

A son, she has a son.

She would have welcome any child born alive but the gods have gifted her a son!!. Her husband has an heir and tywin Lannister has no reason to get ride off her. Her son is alive!! Her little baby that she prayed so hard for.

How much she wants to kiss his little head or caress his tiny feet. How much she wants to rock him over her chest and let him nurse, traditions be damned. She cares not what the other ladies her goodfather gifted her would say, she cares not that the act is more fitting of a peasant woman than of the eldest daughter of a lord paramount, the wife of the heir of the richest kingdom.

This is her son and they would not take this away from her !!!

But she can do nothing, she can not kiss her baby, or to rock him until he is asleep, she can not nurse him and she can not hold him.

All she can do is be there, unmoving but not unfeeling. She can hear the voices and when the haze of the milk of the poppy- the sweet drink they forced on her- passes she understands.

The maester nervous words directed to her maids, his cold hands when he touches her face to lift her eyelids. The maids’s tittering when they clean her and put her on a new shift and change her bedsheets,, remarking on how her body is much leaner now that she has birthed and can not eat so much. Some of her ladies’s conversation – lady crackehall and lady farman- , when they are in hearing distance, about themselves and their wish she awakes soon and the snarky answers of both lady estren and lady westerling. Or even the comment of the last one , insinuating so _carefully_ that tywin Lannister was already inquiring about her daughter’s hand.

But she can not move and she can not talk or answer to that odious woman’s words. And though her mind is awake and sharp as ever, her body is weak. She feels a deep set tiredness in her very bones and her belly feels strange, hollow.

They _– the maester and the maids and her ladies-_ use to feed her broth and milk thickened with honey, but most is spilled and is very difficult to swallow because of it’s consistence and catelyn knows she is wasting away, the roundness and softness of her girth is gone, and her figure is much closer than the one she had as a maid than the one as tyrion’s wife or even ned’s.

And something is _wrong_ , sometimes is not the maester wide and cold hands who feed her or the rough smaller ones of the maids. Sometimes, cold slim hands with sharp nails feed her an awful concoction, bitter and leafy , and she makes every effort to throw it out , but the person pinch her nose and most of the liquid is received and she always sleeps long _– too long-_ after that.

But sometimes her husband brings their child to her room and puts him over her chest. She would have liked her to talk to him, to tell him not to worry that she would soon wake up but she can’t . she can’t open her eyes and she can’t move and much less talk.

And she is angry and worried, she knows she must do something, to give a signal that she is there and not unconscious.

The maester is growing very concerned and when more days – _hours, days, weeks?_ \- pass , he talks with her husband. She hears the old man say that her chances are diminishing and if it keeps like this, the kinder thing would be make her passing as painless as possible, to drug her with milk of the poppy and sweetsleep and let her join the seven in the heavens and she froze.

Tyrion is horrified to know she is not receiving milk of the poppy anymore, he appears to have believed it was administered to her until now and not only the first to weeks, that is was the reason she was still like this

Her mind full with a thousand thoughts, the wheels of her brain working quickly like never before until she heard her husband’s answer.

To her joy,

refuses. He says than none would be doing that, that not even his lord father has authority to do so, that she is wife and the maester should continue to treat her at the best of his abilities until she wakes up or dies, but that none would make anything to speed her passing.

It’s a relief, and she is glad that Tyrion still has hope in her but she knows this situation can not go on. She needs to wake up or she will die. Whoever is feeding her that herbal concoction is trying to kill her, and he will succeed if catelyn does nothing, and she is so tired…. but she _has_ to live. Her son needs her, and if they ride themselves of her so easily what is to say that they won’t try the same with her son?. He is just a baby and he is defenseless and even when Tyrion appears to care about him , her son needs _her_. She is his mother.

How could she not _fight_ to be able to raise her son? To be able to live the life that she was denied so many times?.

Catelyn mind is made up. There is no other path. She will gather her strength, she would start small, trying to move her fingers and eyes, then she will focus on her hands and arms , then she would try to speak and then to walk.. But she is unsure of how to deal with her would-be assassin, it’s obviously not the maester or the maids and if lord lannister’s hand was behind like the lady westerling implied , it would be any of them. And it must not be a sellsword paid by him either, the thought is absurd. And after she heard from Tyrion, and even if she had never heard him visit, she knows it is not her husband, theirs is not a love story but there is no hate or duplicity between them. And she feels Tyrion is afraid of raise the baby on his own.

That leaves the ones who benefit from her fall from grace, from her death and the one of her child.

_Kevan Lannister, Dorna Swift, Genna Lannister.Darlessa Marbrand_

But it can not be either of them. Lord kevan had many opportunities to get way with his remaining nephew or push his eldest son as a better alternative heir to lord tywin if the plan to remove ser Jaime of the kingsguard fails, as it has failed until today. And the lady dorna has no aspirations to be anything more than the wife of a knight, she has no wits to scheme and make her son the lord of the rock and she is deeply afraid of her goodbrother, she would never risk to take any action even if she secretly hopes for her son’s chances. And though lady frey does not like her, she has nothing to gain, her own frey sons are so far from the main line that she could never realistically hope for one of the to end as the lord of the castle, and she is a smart woman. She has nothing to gain and everything to lose if the truth is discovered and the same can be said about the lady marbrand.

And that leaves her with nothing, until a thought occurs to her.

_My ladies_.

_Westerling, yarwick, estren, crackehall, prester, lydenn. House kenning has no daughter and House farman’s only one has married a couple of years ago._

Who between them has the most ambition? Who is bold enough to act against the wife of tywin’s heir? Who is willing to kill so her daughter ends as the lady of the rock?

_Westerling._

_The bitch still wants her daughter to be tyrion’s wife!!_


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I have a chapter from the pov of someone I think many would not expect but I did not feel okay with not continuing the with what happens with Tyrion, catelyn and the baby. However I also did not want to keep their povs so I tried something else. I would like to know what you think, don’t forget my past questions, I would love suggestions.

He looks up from the letter’s in his desk.

Tyrion stands in his solar, he had not bothered to knock up the door or wait for a servant to announce him and he fidgets with the babe in his arms.

-‘’Father..’’- his voice is not flippant or impertinent for once.

He returns his gaze to the letters. His daughter had sent a message, one of many, complaining about her husband and king. This one announces the birth of another bastard, a daughter, born of an inkeeper’s wife near rhaenys’s hill.

_If you have played Robert instead of turning him away from you he would not have to seek solace in the arms of whores and such peasant women when he had already the most beautiful woman of westeros in his bed. This is of your own making, you never learned to treat and compromise with your would-be allies, you always expected everyone to bow to your whims because you are my daughter but never cared to actually understand why they follow me or obey me, it is not just because blind fear but because also I’m respected, I rule with an iron fist but I’m capable and efficient, my lands prosper and the common folk and nobles know that if they are loyal and keep the laws they would be treated fairly. I don’t care about their bootlicking and don’t recompense it, but you, my daughter, had never never understood it._

-‘’Why is it not with the wetnurse?- He speaks while folding the letter and taking another in his hands.

There is a pause and Tyrion does not speak.

This one is from the very old lord lydden, or more likely of his maester, a lantell bastard from lannisport.

_I greet you, my most estimed lord tywin with the intention to keep you appraised of some of the other lord’s leanings. It has become common knowledge that your good daughter is no long for this world and such many have started to pack their belonging with the intention of attending the funeral. To be bold , none would miss the lady and all are plotting to join their blood to yours by the means of lord Tyrion, even some landed knigths and minor lords are brash enough to aspire to that honour or at least, to gain the hand of some of your nephews. I have heard other …rumors though. The queen was very displeased at the news that a son was born from the lady catelyn, she raved long enough for many courtiers to hear and has sent many letters to some of your bannermen. A handmaiden had heard talk of her with your son, deriding you about your choice to marry the lord Tyrion to a riverlander and her dashed hopes of yourself akwnoledinging_ _she was your true heir as she is convinced since ser Jaime was kingsguard and lord Tyrion is.. a dwarf. She had said that if you died before her husband’s death she intended to send the young prince tommen to act as her castellan to the rock or if by the time of your demise the king was also dead , she intended to return to the westerlands and rule as lady paramount. I shall not overstep and imply what was not my place but I though prudent to warn you of the queen’s ….._

Tywin lifts his gaze from the letter and stares at his youngest _son._

He is no longer than four feet and he is deformed. His legs are short and bowed and his arms stunted, his chest is wide almost as if he were a normal man and his face has coarse features , his nose is short and wide and the arch of his eyebrows more prominent than the one of any Lannister. His eyes are awful looking, one black as of any peasant and another green enough so tywin could not deny him his name

_A freak, a monster from the tales of children come to life to make a mockery of me. An ill-made creature who clawed his way out of my wife’s body, who torn her apart from the inside so he could be the bane of my house. My punishment for daring to be greater than kings and gods._

_To teach me humiillity the seven took my Joanna, my true mate and only equal and gifted me the thing would be the ruin of my family, who would drag my ancient name back to sewers after I managed to make it feared and respected once my lord father was dead._

_And this beast in the body of a twisted man, as misshapen and deformed of mind as he is of body, dares to live and walk in my castle, to drink my wine and eat my meat, to wear my family’s sigil in his chest and fail to do least he could, to breed a healthy son and somewhat wash away the shame of his own existence…. But no, of course he is happy to spite me, I gave him more than he ever deserved, I let him keep his life when I wanted to end him . I offered mercy to joanna’s killer and let him live the a live of privilege, the same that live my son and daughter. I gave him my name when he is…. who he is. I gave him one of the most highborn ladies as a wife, after dozens had rejected him. I went as far as to recognize him as my heir until Jaime returned so the proud hoster accepted him as a goodson. And he spurs my generosity and mercy and taunts me again and again._

His hate for Tyrion is constant and always present but there is something that apart of his deformed body never fails to flame the fire of it and make his control slip.

_Blonde hair ,not gold but ...pale. Pale, almost silver hair. Barely darker than rhaella’s, rhaegar’s and aerys’s,_

His rage inflames at the thought, it's unbidden and hot in his chest and he clench his fists with the effort of not to unsheathe his dagger that hangs a t his side and stab the heart out of this beast.

_Fucking aerys, come back from the seven hells to haunt me, to remind me that even when I killed him and ended his house, his blood is still around. That his seed would be my doom._

Of course something produced by the actions of the mad monster could not yield a good crop. He only has to see the othes .

Rhaegar had been soft and mad, too lost of his books and scrolls, barely awakening enough to realize the importance to know arms but not enough to realize the death trap he caged himself in. Viserys , morphed by grief and hunger, slowly lost whatever wits he inherited from rhaella and with the girl sold to a dothraki horselord at the moment she flowered, she will share her mother's luck in marriage and it would not be long before she emulates another Targaryen and takes her own life.

When he looks at Tyrion again there is something else too.

_Joanna’s terrified look when I found her after what aerys did to her._

He closes his eyes. No matter whatever this creature father’s was, he was still _joanna’s._

_Joanna, who begged and cried even when she was bleeding to death so I spare her-our- son. Joanna telling me it was not the babe’s fault. Joanna asking me to love the the twins. Joanna dying with a smile on her pale bloodles face when I swore to her that i will not not kill the thing._

\- ‘’ You shall not bring him in my presence, ever. I care not what else you do when I am away but I care not to see him. You failed, you have not given me a healthy heir. ‘’-

At tyrion’s wide eyes and spluttering he lifts his hand with a palm open and turned towards him, Tyrion falls silent.

-‘’Make no mistake, you shall never rule as lord of the westerlands but I was willing to allow you to be your sons’s regent if Jaime keep this nonsense and does not live the white cloaks. However since your spawn is weak and likely to die long before that is even possible. If your wife survives, you will get her with child and have several normal children. , you would not frequent whores , you would not shame me with your visits to lannisport and make an spectacle of yourself like the last time ‘’-

He takes a sip of his wine and looks at tyrions’s reddening face, his angry murderous expression so like aerys’s that he is pleased to twist the dagger more.

-‘’If your wife dies you will marry again without complaint to however I choose and breed, this time it would a healthy, normal son and several other children.If you do not agree to marry again or not manage to breed sons likely to survive you, I shall marry lancel to lord lefford’s only daughter and heir and he would be my heir. I shall disinherit you and send you to the watch, annul your marriage on the base of barrenness and sent your wife to the faith. Do you understand me ?’’-he says enunciating clear the four last words.

Oh, he is so pleased at spitting on aerys’s actions.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you like this, i dearly treasure every review

_I had wanted to come and see my nephew, little brother, but our sister the queen refuses to go and leave little tommen, -as she keeps calling him in private -alone in the capital and Robert does not care to go by his own, he still is oddly morose after all this time and wants to keep little Eddard close, much ignoring the girl and Joffrey to cersei’s dismay._

_Either way, I had sent by ship some toys and a wetnurse for your son knowing the problems he had and also I sent another…. person. A man by the name of qyburn, a disgraced maester to be honest, one that was expelled from the citadel by opening the bodies of the living to know death’s secrets .. I know it’s sounds ominous enough but he is very intelligent and skifull healer and well versed in poisons too, he owes me a big big favor and you wont have to be worried about his loyalties. The only thing he wants is to have a wealthy patron and practice his craft and he has learned his lesson about discretion. Even father won’t mind a few criminals in our oubliettes to banish for a greater purpose._

_With your lady fish sick and the baby so frail you will need all the help you can get, especially since there are now other interests focused on you._

_I don’t intend to alarm you, as it is almost the other way around, but do not dismiss the possibility that some lord has poisoned the lady, I know nothing of the ways of a healer but I discussed what you told me about her with qyburn and pycelle and they both find it very unusual and if she does die , you are free to marry again. You know I won’t come back to be father’s heir again and with your recent marriage many have come to accept you as father’s natural heir no matter what the old man may say in private, so you just know I have searched in arryn and robert’s solars and there is no letter from the rock._

_With love, the smartest Lannister alive._

He is frowning and thinking when someone knocks on his door.

The man in front of him is stocky and brown haired, he is not dressed in the usual garb of red cloaks but as a manservant. Tyrion looks at him briefly before recognizing him as one of the steward’s assistants.

The man bows to him, much more profound than he ever did before, and then he darts a quick look at his desk before speaking.

\- ‘’My lord Tyrion, there is a … group’’- he says with some disgust- ‘’a woman and a man who claim to have been sent by ser Jaime and seek audience with you, they bring a chest with them and insist to see you’’-

-‘’Well don’t keep them waiting, my good man’’- he says moving a hand with little interest.

But the man does not move and speaks again –‘’ my lord… it is a common woman with an old man whom a soldier who has kin in the reach says is a former maester, banished by the citadel for practicing dark sorcery. They have come as supplicants and every peasant and minor lord have seem them. I do not think lord tywin would have wanted to..-’’

He gives the man a dark look. He has been trying to perfect the old lion’s cold murderous stare but though the man does not cower or apologize immediately, he does shift from foot to foot and looks down at the floor.

-‘’My lord father is not here, and Jaime has indeed sent these … servants to me. I had never rejected a gift from my dear brother and I do not care to repeat myself. Direct the woman to my son and assign some maids to assist her, send the man here’-

The man looks at him uneasily but bows again and scurries out of the door.

Tyrion watches as the man disappears and thinks. He almost scoffs at the though of someone poisoning catelyn. He knows from uncle kevan that while his father _indeed_ tried to married him off several times, both here and in the other realms, every time his suit was rejected and so the idea that after all the rucus, now, that he already has a wife someone would try to put his relative in her place is ridiculous.

_Although it would not be so absurd, would it?. They probably wanted to be asked a second time so they could have a chance to eschew the dowry or at least pay a pittance. It would be so like many proud fools to be offended that I married into the riverlands and not the westerlands even when they have rejected me before._

Merely days after, things only got worse. Tyrion drinks bitter rum after his conversation with the former maester.

_\- ‘’Im sure of it, my lord’’- the old man says. Tyrion thinks he must be in his fifties and he is thin with a the aspect of someone grandfather, with sympathetic face that invites to trust, nothing like he imagined after his brother’s letter to be honest._

_\- ‘’Who … who is it? ‘’- his voice is empty and flat and he fears the answer. He only prays it is not his father. The man despises this healer and only tolerates his presence at jaime’s urging. The others he could deal, but if it is lord tywin things are done, he could not flee for he is sure that he would be watched and his lady is in no condition to endure travel, his son much less._

_The older man gives him a sad little smile before speaking –‘’I still am not sure of that, but I can tell you it’s someone with knowledge of herb lore and poisons too, and im not referring to the things many common women or even midwifes or a simple maester know. I have detected demon’s blood, a paste coloured blue that makes people piss a lot, usually used to treat the high blood that is so common in places were the food is rich and abundant like myr and tyrosh. There is also traces of monkey’s tail, not a poison per se and very useful in amputations since it makes the blood thicken and impedes the bleeding but if there is no bleeding and low mobility it forms clogs that obstruct the passage of the fluid in one’s veins and causes lose of limbs by gangrene or even death if it happens in the brain, very used by dothraki healers and their neighbours. And that is not all. Apart from sweetsleep and nightshade, is grey bark . a substance that causes the heart to slow, intense sweating and salivating aside from pain in the bowels and loose stools, it also tends to distress the person beyond the other symptoms caused, it provokes an horrible death. ‘’-_

_Tyrion is aghast. To think that so much effort has been employ-_

_The man speaks again –‘’I know you are a learned man but I need to point that neither of those substances are inexpensive, and aside from the demon’s blood, sweetsleep , nightshade, the others need someone with extensive knowledge to be used. Monkey’s tail degrades easily and quickly without the correct maintenance and grey bark though more durable does not need to be drank, it can be absorbed by skin or even inhaled and that makes very complicated to use it without the poisoner poisoning himself. ‘’-_

_His voice wobbles before replying. –‘’All those have been used to kill catelyn? How is she still alive then ? ‘’-_

_-‘’ The lady Lannister is a young healthy woman in spite of her previous miscarriages, and her previous girth made easier for her to survive so long without proper food, a thinner woman would have already wasted all her fat and probably would have been dead by the time I arrived. But I agree, a combination of all those would have killed a strong man in the prime of his life…. but not all were used, your lordship. Not on her._

_-‘’The wetnurse is a clever woman, she used some of the discarded bottles of milk she found and made some newborn kittens of the kitchens drink from them. All got sick, with the symptons that I told you about.’’-_

_Surely it can not be, this … his son too ? -‘’Loose bowels and sweating it is not so uncommon on babes that were born earlier, and the bottle could have been dirty. You can not be sure that ..’’-_

_-‘’There is something else that I did not mention, the grey bark, aside from all else, causes the pupils to change its size and appear like little points in the eyes. Both your son and the animals had that ‘’-_

Tyrion closes his eyes.

_A Lannister pays his debts._


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sorry for the long wait, it was a crazy month . i appreciate all the comments , kudos and hits

She glares sullenly at the glass of wine in front of her.

It all had been going so well !!!. If she only had more time she have could weaken the fat trout enough so her death won’t appear unreasonable unnatural. The woman was already very weak from the birth when she decided to act, emboldened by the situation. She had hoped that with each week that passed giving her the poisons in small doses _\- poisons almost unheard in westeros -_ there would be no suspicions. But she is sure the dwarf had been alerted somehow and now that weird old man is always tending to the woman or even the babe.

She grimaces.

Though it did not please her , it was nothing short of necessity to be done with the boy. She has seen Tyrion Lannister holding the babe, talking to him and showing more interest in it than it was surely warranted, and he did not even appear to be bothered by his small size of frailness. And why would he be? Since he has more obvious deformities.

The man cares about his son and even if she managed to kill the tully woman ,and marry young jeyne to the dwarf if the babe survives , the thing will come before any child of her daughter and all would have been for nothing !!!.

Sickly as the pitiful thing was, he had a little cock between his legs and a powerful grandfather to boot. Proud hoster tully, who married his sixteen year old maiden daughter to a man in his sixties and twice widowed would never allow for a grandson of his blood to be displaced by a mere bannermen’s daughter’s son, much less if its legitimacy was never in question and even less if the prize was casterly rock.

And she would never accept her blood to play second fiddle to anyone. Even when her brother managed to coerce the old lord westerling to marry gawen to her, tying their new house to an ancient name, many scoff at them. Upjumped merchants, witch’s children, essosi trash, all that had been throw at them for years. The same reason all her brother’s overtures to find a wife had failed, the same reason tywin Lannister did not even consider her daughter as an option for his dwarf son.

_And I gamble to win._

Sadly her access to the thing was very much restrained from the beginning, she could only managed to visit it a few times citing her concern by her beloved’s lady son, and when she was actually in the nursery she was almost always shadowed by some maids or other servant, so she had to concoct some excuse to send them on errands and quickly rub the substance on the babe’s feet or coat it inside his bottle of milk.

However now that odd old man has wormed his way inside tyrion’s confidence her plans have been thwarted. There is no longer any chance to sneak in the trout’s rooms and even less inside the ones of the little bastard. There are two guards assigned inside and two outside and none can approach the obstacles for jeyne’s destiny without either Tyrion, the maester creylen or the qyburn man being present.

And she knows that man is up to no good.

Some maids she bribed had told her about how he spends his time either in the laboratory Tyrion gifted him doing gods know what with the babe’s sheets and clothes and bottle’s or either talking with the servant’s children and the youngest and lowest of pages.

Normally she would think the former maester has affinity to bedding the young ones, much more considering that he was expelled from the citadel but something is not quite right. When she has again questioned the maids for something to use against the man, they all insisted he has no known lover, either male or female and that none of the squires have complained about him trying to fondle them, all insist that the man appear to have no more interest than his lab, his tending to the lord’s family and the books he had managed to purchase in lannisport. So she suspects him of trying to reclute his little spies, after all, almost all nobles consider the ones serving them as no more than furniture and tend to slip out some ill thought words in their presence.

It can not be dismissed that Tyrion has found his wife’s current state suspicious, maybe even too shady for him to not to consider someone else’s hand behind it and so he had sought the services of the old man to confirm it.

She has been careful and she knows none had seen her doing anything suspicious and every letter from kingslanding was burned immediately after being read but she has no means to keep with her work and if she were ever discovered….

Sybell shudders.

_And now the rains weep over his halls , with no a soul to hear._

She has no protection, her husband’s house is poor and they have no other connections with any lordly house since her late goodfather had been an only child who could only manage to produce one son in turn. Her only relative by blood is her brother and their house does not even have a seat, most of their former grandfather’s wealth was spend away by their father and barely anything remains of what they once had.

She grits her teeth, the odds are against her and it’s to dangerous to continue… if she is discovered tywin Lannister would kill her and make it slow and painful and all her family would follow her to the grave.

She closes her eyes.

_I shall retire, my excuse would be that a letter arrived announcing poor little jeyne is sick and of course It’s a mother’s duty to care for her offspring…. But I’ll return for the things’ nameday and finish my work with none being wiser, and if it keeps living …. Well, sickly things die all the time and none would suspect something foul if his fish mother threw herself to the sea in her grief._

She sighs and starts packing her things.

_But I shall leave them a little gift._


	18. Chapter 18

He watches warily at his new foster son descends from the ship accompanied by two soldiers dressed in Baratheon livery. The boy is slim, with a head full of black hair and dressed in black wool with his house’s blazon embroidered with simple yellow thread on his chest. His eyes widen comically when he approaches him and realizes selwyn is easily two heads taller than him , but he affects a somewhat cocky air and stand just a little taller.

He exchanges pleasantries with roland storm, the knight from the lord of dragonstone’s household charged with bringing the boy his new home.

-‘’Ser roland. I saw your brother shortly before travelling here, I gave him my condolences and he is in good health ’’-

-‘’ Con…, condolences, my lord?’’- he looks at him dumbly and Selwyn realizes the lord caron does not maintain correspondence with his bastard brother.

-‘’My daughter, Brienne, _was_ betrothed to your youngest brother, ser. Your lord father perished of the same ailment than the boy ‘’- he says carefully and sees the pockmarked knight’s face harden in acknowledgment. The man bows stiffly and pushes the boy in front of him before departing with the other soldiers.

Selwyn sighs, and notices the boy looking quickly form the back of the bastard of nightsong to him, his black eyes narrowing when he realizes he is being observed.

-‘’Follow me, young lord’’-

The youth barely keeps on with his longs strides and so he purposely slows his steps. They walk side by side in silence until one of his knights bring the horses. He quickly mounts and is already stirring the gelding onwards when he notices the boy is still on the floor, looking at his hands and kicking the dirt beside his boots.

His blonde eyebrows wrinkle . –‘’Mount’’ – he knows not how his stay was passed on dragonstone or how we was treated, though he can guess, but he would not allow his charge any disrespect and his patience is already waning.

The boy’s cheeks redden and he looks flustered before mumbling something than he can not catch .

-‘’ Speak clearly or don’t speak at all’’- he says while his men look at the child with annoyance.

The boy glares at him for a whole second before his pride crumbles and then he directs his gaze at the horse’s hooves -‘’ I can not ride, I know not how…. My lord ‘’- he spits through clenched teeth.

And Selwyn frowns again. He had expected the boy to already know how to conduct himself as any noble of his age but he realizes it was a mistake on his part. The boy is not from the stormlands or even of the south, and neither he is a northmen, there are no proper horses on the iron islands , only the ponies that are bred in harlaw and those are very rare and used for mining, something he knows is considered inferior on the islands.

He urges his mount closer to the youth and before he could protest he lifts him from the armpits and settles him ahead of him over the saddle. The boy grumbles something akin that he is not babe but Selwyn ignores him and finally spurs his horse on.

He normally prefers to ride in silence as to focus on the path but the boy tries to avoid contact and he squirms so much that selwyn has to catch him by the waist before he slips out and breaks his skull, his charge then goes still as board and he raises his shoulders as if he was expecting a blow. He does not comment on it but he thinks on who could have made him so afraid. _Lord Stannis and his sense of duty and focus on propriety or your savage iron born father, lacking patience for a third son._

The boy fidgets, apparently surprised that he has not been punched and he looks warily at him from the corner of his eyes, selwyn waits a little more to see if he will speak and he appears to be trying to say something but they have arrived to the castle and are in the line of sight of everyone..

He looks at the boy watching with concealed awe at his seat. Evenfall hall is made from the white marble that is so abundant in the isle and though not massive as the red keep or storm’s end it has a respectable size ad looks as belonging to a fairy tale, surrounded by the bright waters of the sea.

But his eyes leave the castle and focus on the people in front of him. All his household including his children are assembled. Both galladon and Brienne are dressed appropriately, his boy stands tall and cuts a smart figure with a fine tabard with their sigil sewed over blue velvet doublet and Brienne is dressed in the cream myrish gown that he obtained in his last travel, though she looks ill at ease.

They look at his side with wide curious blue eyes and he goes to lower the boy but remembers that he is a lord paramount, at least in name, so he contains himself and lets the youth dismount alone. The boy barely manages to do it and he lands awkwardly on the ground, almost falling to one side if not for the hand on his shoulder that Selwyn lends him.

Someone, Brienne, he thinks, giggles softly in the background and the boy’s black eyes glare at her so fiercely that she whimpers and hides behind her brother, who is scowling at his new charge.

They boy seems unbothered by the fact that both galladon and his daughter, in spite of being younger, are taller and wider than him and his eyes swept from their heads to their feet with contempt before he scoffs, tilting his head to one side, with all the arrogance a boy of thirteen can manage.

Before the situation can deteriorate any further he gestures for his son to greet their guest and gives the three children a pointed look.

Galladon takes brienne’s hand before advancing a couple steps.

-‘’We welcome you, our lord father and _your_ most esteemed ward, the lord theon of the iron islands. It’s our whish your stay here would be longer than the one in dragonstone… after all, we will be family one day ‘’- everything is said with forced cheer but the last sentence is spoken with such plain distaste that the maester shuffles behind his son and murmurs something in his ear all while galladon frowns and ignores the chastisement of the old man, glaring at the his charge.

Selwyn sighs.

It has began wrong. His heir is a kind , intrepid boy, not bothered by many things unless it’s scorn directed at his little sister, who is a shy clumsy girl , who sadly inherited the worse of her family’s features and appears already on the way of being one of the tallest person on this island. They both are very close, especially after the death of their mother and sisters, who Selwyn is sure Brienne can not remember much, and it shows.

Galladon had been always brienne’s knight and the one who had beaten into a pulp all the squires that had mocked her presence in the training yard. He watches his son’s closed fists to his side and tense posture, selwyn’s eyes are on his daughter when his ward speaks.

-‘’ Is _that_ supposed to be a woman? I sooner marry a horse than that _freak_ ‘’- the boy says looking at them with a tilted head, arms crossed and his scornful’s expression so intense than brienne’s eyes water and galladon leaps out and to punch him, knocking them both on the hard ground.

Selwyn is at his wits end and before he can react , the master-at-arms is the one who breaks up their fight. The man quickly grabs his ward by the waist while the boy trashes his arms wildly and screams insults at his son and his steward pulls away galladon by grabbing his arm while the boy tried to kick away the older lad.

Brienne is screaming in the background, shouting for them to stop. Galladon is red in his face and he seems ready to leap out again but before he can selwyn’s reflects kick in and he puts a heavy hand on his shoulder, instantly sensing his son’s anger to melt and give away to embarrassment .

He is already dreading to have accepted the boy.


End file.
